Immigrant troubles

by Fireheart 1945

Chapter 9; House lion

"How do I keep losing?" Shadow asked, in the sort of half-whisper, half-yell that was the loudest he could politely be, given that his family's host was sleeping upstairs.

"I wouldn't worry about it, honey," his wife said gently, as their son scooped up the money that his father had lost in Monopoly. "It's just a game."

"Can't I win just one time? Luna? Anybody?"

"Don't worry," Aurora repeated. "We'll be here for the foreseeable future, so you'll have your chances to win. Just be patient."

Shadow sighed. "Well, We've played this again; what else does the monkey have in his closet?"

Aurora cuffed him on the head with the edge of her wing. "Don't call him that! If it weren't for someone's grace, we'd be starving on the streets." She walked over the game closet. "Hmm... there's a game called Battleship, though it's only two players. There's Operation, but I think manipulating that small tweezer, even with Equestrian hooves, would be difficult. What about this Clue game?"

"Well, alright."

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At the time when dawn was approaching, Shadow watched his wife and son climb into their beds. They fell asleep quite quickly.

Despite the late hour (late for thestrals, anyway), Shadow wasn't that sleepy. His dreams had been filled with his previous military experiences, and he was nervous about sleeping again, especially without Princess Luna in this world to force the worst memories out.

He turned the TV on and set it to it's lowest possible volume that he could still understand, and flipped through the channels. Nothing interesting...

Wait.

A film called "The Green Berets" was about to start.

That brought another memory back.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Shadow stood in ranks with his fellow Lunar Guards. It was dusk, and the moon was just beginning to rise.

A human in a green beret stood before them. "I am Captain John Ashley, and I will be your instructor for the next six months. I won't lie to you; they'll be some of the hardest in your life. By the time that is over, those of you who pass will be considered the elite of the elite. But be forewarned; I won't take back-sass, and I won't let those incapable, for whatever reason, of passing do so. I intend to make your lives a living hell on Earth up to graduation day. I also intend to be fair, to a point; I will use nothing against you that wasn't used against me when I was training to be Special Forces. Make no mistake, though, this will be tough, and you'll all be pushed to your limits. I'll weed out who is Special Forces material, and who is fit to just carry tea for some general in back of the front line. Your training starts... now."

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He hadn't been joking, Shadow mused in the present; those six months had been terrible. But they had given him and the other Lunar Guards the training they needed to turn their natural abilities and already formidable combat prowess into an art.

He clicked on the film as it began, and began to watch.

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Luke awoke to the sound of his phone alarm. He switched it off, got out of bed, dressed, and walked downstairs.

In the living room, a very messy board, with Clue cards and pieces everywhere, remained where it had last been used. With a smile on his face, he picked up the papers on which each player had crossed off those people, places, and things that had not been involved with the murder. Apparently, it was Colonel Mustard, with the walking stick, in the living room; surprise surprise, Bright had won, though his father had been closing in on the right answers when he had.

A few snores from the guest bedroom told him his guests were asleep, as was their wont at this hour.

He left the house, shut and locked the door, and went on to work.

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Aurora awoke and carefully got out of bed. A gurgling in her belly told her it was time to get a snack.

As before, she walked into the kitchen, pulled out a few cookies, poured herself some milk, and sat down to enjoy.

House is quiet with everypony - and everyone - out or sleeping.

She finished bathing her first Oreo in milk and began to eat it.

Mmm, have to hand it to these Oreo people; they sure do know how to make cookies right... usually, anyway.

She gradually made it through each cookie - she just had to savor each one - and got back onto all fours, letting out a yawn as she did so.

Ugh... guess it's back to sleep... Her thoughts stopped as her gaze fell upon a door behind the stairs. How did I never ask what was behind that one?

She walked over to it and pulled it open.

Oh, a basement.

She was about to close the door, but curiosity got the better of her. Luke had given the family full allowance to explore the house in his notes, provided they didn't break anything...

She walked carefully down the wooden stairs. They creaked as she did so. They were steeper stairs than she liked; obviously not designed for Equestrian legs. But she reached the bottom without any problems.

It was dark, naturally. That didn't matter; thestrals could see in the dark so long as they had any light to see by, and the unclosed door provided plenty for her to see with.

There were washing and drying machines, a bunch of shelves where a lot of old clothes and bags stood, a table presumably for laundry-based purposes, and... a table. With trains and a town on it.

She walked over to the latter. It was a whole model railroad, one with intricate detail put into it, the kind that couldn't help an observer to think of reality and of rural locations. It was small, and the trains weren't very big; one of the smaller steam locomotives could have comfortably fit on her frog. But it looked like they would run, provided they had electricity.

...As much as I want to, I shouldn't. I could accidentally break something, and I don't want to repay Luke by breaking his train set. And I think I'll keep this a secret from Slugger; he'd try all too hard to get down here and play with this, probably too roughly.

Not far from the train set was a television with a bunch of older video games, mostly cartridge ones. The controllers were designed for human hands; even pegasus wings would have had trouble holding them, and one could forget using them with hooves, or with thestral wings for that matter.

Well, that's a bummer. Bright Light would have loved to play some of these.

There was also a computer on a desk; near it were a lot of CDs in the older kind of square CD holders. Among these were Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, Command and Conquer 2, Civil War Generals 2; Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Civil War; the Game by The History Channel.

Why would someone have an older computer in their basement, especially one that they're still using? I may not be an expert, but this looks really outdated.

Then she actually took the time to read a note on the bottom of the screen; For old games that don't work on modern computers.

Oh.

Elsewhere there was another table; this one had numerous military figures and buildings on it. The buildings weren't glued or otherwise stuck to the table, so they had to be movable. The army figures were a mixture of an older time and higher technology.

A steampunk tabletop game. Bright would love this, though given how fragile that metal looks I'll probably have to keep him away from it for now.

On the walls were containers full of plastic human soldiers, armed with various types of weapons, artillery, tanks, aircraft, and more. On these boxes were the words, "Army Men."

He'd love those. Not exactly guardspony figures, but he'd find a way to make mischief with them.

Across the room were numerous cardboard boxes. They were labelled "School stuff." She decided not to peruse through those.

I'm only looking down here, not touching.

Near the TV with the old games was a wooden shelf filled with DVDs, most of them being history-related.

I will not think that word, I will not think that word...

Near those were some Robotech DVDs.

Nerd.

She gave herself a mental slap for that, and then turned around and headed back upstairs. It was time to get some more sleep. It would be a long road to adjust to being awake during the day.

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Bright slowly opened his eyes, yawned, and stretched out on his side before getting out of bed. He could see it was still daylight outside, though the sun was setting.

He opened the door and went into the kitchen.

If I'm careful, mama won't know I had a few cookies...

He opened the door to the cabinet and began to take out the Oreos...

"Raow."

"Ahh!"

He looked up and to the right, even as he jerked back in surprise. On the counter nearby was a very large, fluffy brown cat.

"Raow."

"Uh, hi, kitty."

He couldn't help but feel a little afraid. He was taller and bigger than the cat, but it was standing on the counter, and he was on the floor. And it was much bigger than any cat he'd seen before.

He raised a hoof to pet the cat.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!" the cat hissed.

"Ahhh! Mama!"

Bright bolted back to the bedroom, where his mother and father were stirring themselves.

"What?" Aurora asked urgently.

"Mama, there's a lion in the kitchen, and it tried to eat me!"

Aurora jumped off the bed, followed by her husband, and both galloped into the kitchen, where the cat was still standing on the counter.

"Well, not exactly a lion," Aurora said after a moment. "But not really a cat either."

"Raow."

"Hey, fluffball, leave my son alone!" Shadow yelled.

The cat hissed again.

"That's i-"

The door to the house opened. Luke came in, with a paper bag filled with asparagus. He stopped upon seeing the situation.

"Um... hi?"

"Oh, Mr. Luke. We're having a problem with your... pet lion."

"Raow."

"Ah, I see you've met Maxwell."

"'Maxwell?'"

"Yeah," Luke said, coming into the kitchen and putting the vegetables in the fridge. "Or Max, for short. He's my buddy."

"He's enormous!"

"Yeah, Maine Coons can get really big. Honestly I lucked out a little there."

"Um, well, Bright here was outsi-" Aurora stopped talking as she noticed the open cabinet and book of cookies. "Were you trying to slip in a snack before dinner?" she asked in a soft but dangerous voice.

"I, uh-"

"Answer. Me."

Bright looked down. "Yes, mama."

"...We're not playing that Monopoly game tonight."

"But mama-"

"No! You know not to steal cookies before dinner! Be fortunate I don't confine you to the bedroom for the night!" Aurora turned back to Luke. "Sorry, I think we've caused enough trouble for today."

"Don't worry about it." Luke went over to Maxwell and began petting him. The cat purred happily, rubbing his head willingly against his owner's hand.

"He kind of scared our foal."

"Yeah, sorry about that. He loves me, but is suspicious of visitors. I'm guessing he was hiding all this time from you."

"Hide? How does that... thing hide? It's not a cat, he's a young lion!"

"Trust me, my cat can hide almost anywhere he wants to. He hide inside my train tunnel down in the basement once; I have no idea how he fit in there, but he did. Cats somehow manage to hide wherever they want; I think the rule is, 'if their heads fit, the rest of the body will follow.'"

"Raow."

"Sounds like he smokes at least a 12-pack every day," Shadow said, still frowning.

"He's sounded like that since he reached adulthood," Luke said, carefully ignoring the insult to his pet. "He's loyal to people he comes to like, though; so long as you guys give him time, he'll mellow out. He always does. Right, Maxie?"

Max continued to purr, rubbing his head against Luke's chest.

"Good boy."

"We're sorry, Mr. Luke. And... I went into your basement earlier today."

Luke let out some air. "I would have liked it if you'd waited for permission, but otherwise I'm not all that bothered.

"I promise, I won't do it again. And thanks."

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After Luke and Aurora cooked dinner and the entire family and their host had sat down, Luke watched as Max simply jumped onto the couch and laid down; the cat had been wary of the thestrals for the rest of the day, and while he had finally emerged from wherever he had been hiding, he wasn't yet ready to trust them. Max continued to watch, turning his head to look whenever one of the ponies moved significantly.

Luke sat down next to him and began petting him. Max shut his eyes and began purring.

"Rather calm now, isn't he?" Aurora noted, sitting in a chair near the window.

"Yeah. Again, I apologize. He's suspicious of strangers. A little scratch behind the ears and some pets from me, though, and he's cuddly as a kitten."

At that moment Max began to purr.

"See?"

"Still a pest to our foal," Shadow said, staring at the cat. "And sounds like a chain smoker."

"What would you know about smoking?" Luke asked.

"Trust me," Aurora answered, "Equestria isn't nearly so innocent as it's portrayed. Vices like smoking, drugs, alcohol, and illicit magic."

"'Illicit?'"

"Yes; besides dark magic - the kind you humans would call Satanic or occultic - there are spells that do things that have the same effects as drugs. The Want-it-Need-it spell, when cast by a unicorn on themselves, gives them a self-loving, narcissistic 'high' that wears off very slowly; sometimes it takes half a day or more to disappear entirely. Other spells might boost a pony's physical or mental status for a time while harming them another way, like erasing their memories or bringing permanent physical damage to their body in exchange for insane physical strength."

"How common is that stuff?"

"Hard to quantify. Few ponies do that kind of crud openly. It's usually a back alley type of deal, or has been in my husband's experience."

"Thugs without honor or order in their lives," Shadow broke in. "Worthless, selfish hooligans who need prison, or worse."

"...As my husband just implied, Guards from both shifts hate these kinds of criminals; they usually start off their careers - the Guards, that is - more idealistically, and then get more cynical over time; by the time they've seen what Shadow has, their view of criminals starts on a sliding scale and only goes down from there."

"Scum who waste the time we could be using to watch out and deal with bigger threats."

"True," Aurora said. "Offenders for most illicit magic get up to ten years in prison. For dark magic, it's usually life in prison; centuries ago, it would have meant execution."

"Which I would support," her husband again broke in. "That trash needs a death sentence."

"I don't disagree with him," Aurora continued. "Dark magic really is letting evil into your soul, often to the very great misery, pain, and death of others and oneself. It ought indeed to have a higher penalty. And that's all just magic; opium and other drugs find their way into back alley markets, as have drugs made in your world; not many of those, as the portals are highly guarded and all baggage is inspected, but somehow a little of it gets through."

"Guards need to be checked for corruption."

"Or the criminals find ways to sneak them in through secret pouches. In any event, our world isn't as innocent as you may have been led to believe, though it's not a horrible place to live, either."

"No nukes, for one thing."

"True. But the monsters are a whole lot more powerful. Imagine fighting a tower of wooden wolves, or hydras."

"Mmmmph."

Luke continued to pet Maxwell. "How do you deal with the common monsters? Like timberwolves?"

"Burn them. As in, the timberwolves, not all of the monsters. Its the only way those wooden lupines can't rise again, by burning them down to ashes; we do try to be compassionate and magically put them to sleep beforehoof, though. As for other monsters, outside of supervillains, we deal with them in a variety of ways, depending on the monster in question. Some we caged and put into habitats where they can, outside of some measure of supervision, go about their daily lives. Parasprites... given their hunger, and the fact that they will always breed after eating, we have to magically fix so they can't breed. Otherwise, they would out-eat and overpopulate any habitat we gave them."

"What about plants? Poison Joke, for one?"

"We collect and study troublesome plants. If they're dangerous, we burn them, like with timberwolves, or, for those dangerous but which can still be useful, we deploy special teams whose job it is to capture them intact."

"What sort of use are they?"

"Well, Poison Joke, when it's petals are mixed with the right ingredients and magic, can make a very powerful healing potion; the kind that can bring a soldier back from the brink of death, back to essentially full strength, within the hour."

"It heals that quickly? Then why-"

"-Isn't it everywhere? Because Poison Joke is relatively rare; it's not like it pops up in every meadow or valley. You can only find it within the Everfree Forest, and even then, only in limited numbers. And we can't just strip each and every flower every time it sprouts, or there won't be any more to harvest. So it's limited to the Princesses and the elite Royal Guards only."

"Is that plant really that rare? I thought Discord, being the one to sow them..."

"They really are rare plants; it was dumb misfortune that the six Element Bearers ended up in a patch of ground with those flowers. As for why, I'm guessing that the Everfree Forest's animals and insects eat them... probably with dire effects."

"I see."

"Reow."

"Sorry Max." Luke continued petting the cat. "Are animals in your world really more intelligent than here?"

"In the sense that they are self aware and can, to a certain degree, sometimes communicate with us, yes. But they are content to remain animals; making dens, finding food, hoarding food, et cetera. They have no drive for higher existence, or very little. Fluttershy's examples are exceptions that prove the rule."

"Are there any kind of species that are intelligent and capable of civilization that we here don't about, like deer or camels, and the like?"

"There are some. Deer in particular like to keep to their forest villages. As for species outside Equestria, I'm not so much of an expert. Sorry, I'm not a historian or archeologist."

"That's fine."

"Meet any ponies in your line of work? I know there aren't many of us - speaking as a species as opposed to a tribe - who come up here, but still..."

"Actually, I met a couple the other day; a husband and wife pair called Red Guard and Quill. They were historians seeking to learn more about human history in the museum. Interesting questions and fun to talk to."

"Hmm. Haven't heard of them. Must be new, or newer, to the field of historians. of course, history not being my field, I probably never learned about modern scholars; our education, such that it was before Princess Luna's banishment was lifted, would have focused on older ones."

"Personally I like the fact that scholars from each side of the portals are learning each others' history. I think it will prove quite helpful."

"I agree. I do hope our worlds continue peaceful contact."

"As do I."

Author's Note:

Obviously the cat is fit in a little retroactively here, but I hope this was funny at least. Maxwell's meow basically sounds like this;

The reference to the Want-it-Need-it spell being a magical drug comes from https://www.fimfiction.net/story/129154/brother-against-sister.

Comments

[Skyblazer9]

Keep up the awesome work, I really enjoyed this chapter and loved the introduction of Maxwell as I LOVE kitties as I consider the ones that I have in real life as my children.

[StarzGecko]

It’s been… 2 years… welcome back

[TheArbiter1]

8631900
Well your russia doing supervillain things certainly aged well since oh I don’t they launched a war of conquest in 2022.

[Northern Star]

Looks like I found the story at the right time, with the new update.

[WTK55]

YOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Glad to see it back!